John Barrett toughed out Anna Louise fight

May 15, 2013

Western & Southern CEO John Barrett / The Enquirer/Gary Landers

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For nearly three years, it’s been hard to hear the name Western & Southern Financial Group without thinking about its efforts to acquire the Anna Louise Inn.

But John F. Barrett, W&S’ chief executive officer, is betting that in five years, nobody will remember the conflict, which was resolved Monday when the financial services company announced it will pay Cincinnati Union Bethel $4 million for the Downtown property.

W&S is now dusting off plans to transform southeast Downtown after riding out what it knew would be a PR challenge. The Anna Louise Inn currently offers living space for about 75 low-income women; W&S earned $280.6 million in 2011 on $2.9 billion of revenue and was viewed by critics as something of a bully.

“This will all work out,” Barrett said in an exclusive Enquirer interview. “Nobody will remember the consternation, and they’ll all say, ‘Wow.’ ”

W&S plans to develop its extensive real estate holdings surrounding Lytle Park, which include one of Cincinnati’s oldest police stations, half a block of apartments adjacent to Lytle Park and 750,000 square feet of office buildings.

Preliminary plans include up to seven new restaurants, a new garage with housing on top and a new headquarters building. Barrett said turning the Anna Louise Inn into an upscale hotel, along with a revitalized Lytle Park, is critical to maximizing those other assets.

Think of the park and hotel as a hub through which other activity flows. The cumulative economic impact, he said, could be up to $400 million over 30 years.

“Our hope is that in six or seven years, people from all over town take a taxi to Lytle Park, get out and figure out where they’re going to have dinner,” Barrett said. “You’ll say, ‘It feels good, I want to go there.’ ”

It’s the kind of work that invigorates Barrett, 64. He’s been W&S’ CEO for 20 years, and would love nothing more than to run it for another 20. Now that the Anna Louise fight is over, he’s already planning his next moves.

“You’ve got to have anchors. You’ve got pockets of activity,” he said. “You’ve got a very interesting thing on The Banks, with lots of housing and bars, some restaurants. Fountain Square is sort of the center of town, but maybe not the center of business anymore. The center of business has moved east. And I look at this end of town as being your business hub.”

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Until Monday, W&S had been unsuccessful in its previous attempts to buy the Anna Louise Inn from owners who had planned to renovate the facility using $13 million in federal tax credits.

W&S challenged the Anna Louise Inn’s right to the tax credits and accused the inn’s owners of making “false claims” about their intentions for the property, which the company said would violate federal fair housing laws.

Cincinnati Union Bethel denied the claims, but its leadership said it was concerned a prolonged fight would put its tax credits and renovation at risk.

W&S attorneys also suggested that city leaders, the Homeless Coalition and 3CDC in 2010 discussed moving low-income residents from another Downtown property to the Anna Louise Inn as part of a settlement with the Homeless Coalition. Barrett is on the 3CDC’s executive committee.

The Homeless Coalition said the suggestion was “absurd.” 3CDC declined to comment.

If the cost of acquiring the Anna Louise Inn – which W&S consistently said was about principle and doing what’s best for the city – was bad publicity and a potentially awkward moment with his fellow 3CDC CEOs, Barrett was willing to pay the price. He said Monday he is unaware of any fallout with 3CDC as a result of the letter.

“I didn’t personally get any. We’re fine with 3CDC,” he said.

Barrett has been accused of having a long memory, but he disputes that notion and says he’s already moving forward. And he repeated his mantra on Monday that the Anna Louise outcome is a win-win – for the city, for Cincinnati Union Bethel and his company, which turns 125 this year.

“We think it’s going to make the city special. The newly designed park should be a visual oasis,” he said. “And when people are interviewing to work at our company, if we have a visually beautiful building, on the edge of a great park, with a lot of stuff happening around it, it’s a place people want to go and be.”■